Formula 1 | Spanish Grand Prix Preview

Spanish Grand Prix Preview

Tyres

The Spanish Grand Prix will see the debut of the Supersoft as the resurfaced track has allowed Pirelli to bring a softer set of tyres, adding the Soft and Medium to the available compounds rather than the usual Hard.

This new track surface will not only improve grip, but decrease wear and degradation. Due to this, Pirelli have decided to reduce the tread depth by 0.4mm which is said to have no effect on performance, but helps to control tyre temperature, although driver comments from FP2 highlight otherwise.

Turn 3 and Turn 9 of the Spanish Grand Prix subjects the tyre to the most stress and energy, with these high speed corners working the Front left the hardest, often leading to graining.

Infographics courtesy of Pirelli‘This year, Barcelona isn’t exactly like going to a new circuit for the teams: but the changes to the surface are still significant enough to alter some of the track’s fundamental characteristics,’ explains Mario Isola, Head of Car Racing at Pirelli. ‘We too have made a change by reducing the tread depth on the slick tyres to reduce the risk of overheating, as we will also do for Paul Ricard and Silverstone, but it’s not a change that any of the drivers will notice in terms of performance or stint length. The teams already have some knowledge of the new asphalt from pre-season testing, but the weather is now much warmer, the cars considerably faster and there will also be some ageing of the surface. This year, we bring the supersoft to the Spanish Grand Prix – effectively, two steps softer than the softest nomination in 2017, as all the compounds are a step softer anyway – so the homework done in free practice will be particularly important.’

Brakes

The cars spend 16% of the lap on the brakes, which equates to 12.5s.

According to Brembo, the Spanish Grand Prix is medium severity for the brakes.

Average peak acceleration is 4.5G compared to 4.2G last year which highlights the increase in brake torque these 2018 cars have.
Courtesy of Brembo

The higher brake torque also increases the amount of dissipated energy. Throughout the entire Spanish Grand Prix, each car is expected to dissipate 178kWh,which is equivalent to the hourly consumption of three dance clubs in Ibiza.

During the Spanish Grand Prix each driver will apply a load of more than 700kg every minute, which is just less than the weight of a single-seater, including the driver.

The most demanding braking section of the Spanish Grand Prix is Turn 10 where the cars go from 308km/h to 86km/h in 2.32s across 58m.

Deputy Editor of Racecar Engineering. Gemma is a qualified Engineer with a BEng in Mechanical Engineering from Bath University and an MSc in Advanced Motorsport Engineering from Cranfield University. She has worked trackside in BTCC and GT, reaching the F1 pitlane at the age of 23 as a Tyre Engineer for Pirelli. She then moved to Manor F1 as the team's Tyre and Strategy Engineer. In terms of writing, Hatton has been contributing to Racecar since she was 18, with her Motorsport experience helping to bring 'behind the scenes' tech to the Racecar pages. Proud of her geeky passion for all things Motorsport and Engineering, keep up to date with her tech talk on Twitter at @RacecarEngineer

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